The ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) Project was initiated by United Way of Northern New Jersey several years ago to bring focus to the families and individuals who work but whose salaries do not provide sufficient resources to meet basic needs.

The ALICE Project developed a methodology using publicly available census, employment, wage, cost of living and other data to help to understand the extent of ALICE in our communities, those who are above the federal poverty level, but below a sustainable wage.

The ALICE Project is now implemented in 15 states, with New York joining in 2016. It shows the number of ALICE families and children, and single individuals, in each county. It provides a model budget to meet basic needs in each county, along with information about key job categories and other issues that affect the ALICE group. The Report also discusses the challenges that ALICE families and individuals face, and issues that significantly affect them.

The New York ALICE Report is a project of the United Way network in the state. Through the support of 38 local United Ways around the state, and with the generous sponsorship of KeyBank, the State United Way office has contracted with the national ALICE project to perform the research for New York.